


Found and Lost

by Crysiana



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-30 07:06:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1015621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crysiana/pseuds/Crysiana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This piece is about the mayor on the Destiny Islands.  There isn’t really any canon to go on, but I wondered what it would be like to be a parent to one of the DI trio, to lose your child and your world and get them back again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Found and Lost

You run for mayor because you want to help look after your neighbors. Some people think you're a little odd, living by yourself in your cottage, but you're not exactly alone. Your family is here, and of course your friends. The old mayor is retiring, he says, so that he can relax and enjoy life for a while.

No one runs against you, anyway. Your best friend laughs and says it's because everyone's seen how you organize holiday parties and if you do half as well at organizing things as mayor, the town will be the best place to live on the islands. You're not sure if that's the reason, but they must like something about you.

Being the mayor is more work than you expected, but you like knowing that you're making a difference in people's lives. One day just sort of fades into the next; people have their little squabbles and there are roads and buildings to maintain and other things to be dealt with, but life on the Destiny Islands always seems to flow easily from season to season.

The girl's arrival is the first big surprise in your life as mayor. You look at her, shaking and bedraggled, wrapped up in an old blanket and curled up on your couch. The girl doesn't remember where she's from. She doesn't know the name of her home, or who took care of her. She doesn't know anything but her name.

Kairi.

You arrange to have notices sent out all over the islands. She might have fallen off a fishing boat or been caught in a riptide. Someone, somewhere, must be looking for their little girl. You sit next to her and hug her, and your best friend, who has a son about the girl's age, tries to find out if she truly doesn't remember anything.

The reports start to trickle back in; no one has lost a child, there aren't any children missing. There's one report of a missing child, but that's for a boy, definitely not for a young girl with eyes as deep as the sea. You hope they find the boy.

Since the girl was brought to your house, it seems natural that she'll stay there until someone finds her parents; your best friend's son visits, and other children, curious to meet her. Once she's rested and eaten, she isn't shy. You're glad to see her making friends, even if she won't be here for long.

A few weeks of reports trickle down to nothing. No reports of children matching her description, no reports of whole families, just in case something happened to her parents as well. No one seems to know where she came from or how she arrived on the islands, but one thing is clear: she's going to need a permanent home.

You never thought about being a mother.

You ask your best friend. You aren't sure; are you up to taking care of her by yourself? Would it be better for her to be with someone whose job isn't so time consuming? Should she go to a family that has children already, so that she'll have siblings? You can't help but think of how she looked when she curled up against you, and something aches in your chest at the thought of giving her up. She trusts you, you're sure of it, and she's been through so much.

Your friend tells you no one's really ready to be a parent, but if you love the girl, your home will be good for her. She's happy in your home, and she seems happy here. It would be cruel to make her leave the new home she's found after she's lost everything. No one objects, at any rate, when you make it official, and Kairi hugs you as if she'll never let you go.

It stays in the back of your mind that someday, someone might come and recognize her, but after ten years, you stop worrying. 

You think you've done a good job. She seems happy, hanging out with Sora and Riku and their other friends. She does well in school and doesn't cause trouble and if she's assertive, that means you've raised her right. Summer vacation just started, which means all of the children will be burning off their energy on the play island. She's old enough to take a canoe out by herself, but you always check for her when you come in; everyone needs to be back by sunset, that's the rule. She only gives you trouble with that once, and the scolding you give her (not to mention the scolding the boys get) ensures that she doesn't do it again.

Until the night of the storm. People's memories get a bit confused; maybe muted. You remember it, though; the wind picked up around supper time and clouds filled the sky. Usually storms don't blow in so quickly, but it can happen. You go to her bedroom to check on her, and she's not there.

A sick feeling starts to form in the pit of your stomach and you're already out your door when you see your best friend running down the road to your house. The clouds look wrong somehow, too dark and thick for normal clouds. It should be raining, if the sky is that black, you think, and then your friend takes you by the shoulders and demands to know if you've seen her son.

Darkness seems to well up from the ground and you feel something crack underneath your feet, and then you don't remember anything until the world snaps into focus again. It's sunny, and for a moment you don't remember why you're outside, and then you're running for the beach. Kairi's rowing back towards you, and you drag her from her canoe, hugging her as tightly as you can. You aren't sure why you're crying, but she hugs you back and for now, that's enough.

You don't think about it for too long, because Sora and Riku are still missing, and you have friends and other people to look after. Kairi's explanations sound...bizarre, outlandish, but everyone seems to feel that something strange happened, and some people remember ending up other, bizarre places. At any rate, it's meant to be reassuring to you and to Sora and Riku's parents.

You aren't sure that it's reassuring at all.

You tell Kairi not to tell anyone else about what happened, and she nods and agrees that most people wouldn't understand. She seems older somehow, and some days, it worries you, but even though nothing seems to have changed, you find yourself having to do little things to put the town back together. People are shaky for a while, but they recover, and by the time you have breathing room, you're used to Kairi's wistfulness.

The second time she disappears is terrifying.

You're terrified because your best friend just recently remembered that she had a son, Sora. You're terrified because memories that felt strange and disjointed suddenly snapped into focus, and suddenly Kairi's interest in training to fight isn't an idle hobby but a warning sign. You're terrified because she smiles at you one day and says she's going to head to the beach after school, and then she's gone.

You didn't have time to worry before, like you do now. You ask everyone, you put out a notice, you put up posters. Selphie doesn't know anything, nor do Tidus or Wakka or anyone else. You wait for news, but there's nothing, nothing at all. Not even a body. You thought you understood what your friends had gone through, worrying about Sora and Riku, and now you know you had no idea.

When she comes back, so do Sora and Riku and it's strange because it's a relief and yet they're so different. Kairi isn't as much, but when you stop to think about it you think that that's merely because her determination was always there; she's just found a focus for it now. Sora's both calmer and quieter than he used to be. You think he's more mature, and it's a nice change, but your best friend and her husband come to you one day and sit at your kitchen table and cry. 

Sora is the same, they tell you, but he's seen things. He's still a child, but in some ways he's not and they couldn't help him. Riku's parents are more private, but you think they must have cried too. Riku is the most changed, and even if it's all for the better, it's as if who he was is totally lost.

One day Kairi sits down to dinner and you see that she's fidgeting. You wonder if it's about what your best friend mentioned, that Sora's told her that what's happening out there isn't over and he and Riku will have to leave again sometime soon. You wonder if Kairi means to go with them, and you want to tell her that she can't, that she isn't allowed to leave again, that no matter what's happened she's a child and you're her mother and there has to be someone else, some adult, who can save the universe.

"I found out where I came from," she says.

It feels like a punch to the gut, and you struggle to respond. You blink back tears and tell her that you're glad she found her home. You force the words past the lump in your throat and ask if she's found her parents, her family. That they must be so happy to know that she's safe and alive after so long. Inside your head all you can think is _no no no no no don't leave me, I raised you, you're mine, I just got you back, you can't_ , but a voice in the back of your mind reminds you that you knew a decade ago that she wasn't yours, and that someday her family might come for her. She was their daughter first.

She gets up and comes over and hugs you, and it's harder to fight back the tears now. She doesn't know if she has family left, she says. She hasn't looked yet, but she's going to someday soon. It's going to be hard, she says, because she'll have to tell them that she can't stay.

You do start crying at that, and you're not sure if it's pain or relief. You should tell her that if she has family that she should stay with them, that they love her and deserve her back, deserve to know how amazing she is. You can't, though, not right now.

"This is my home," she adds. "You're my mom. Maybe I could go back and forth, but I couldn't leave. Not forever."

You do argue with her about the saving the universe thing later, but you suspect she'll go no matter what you say. You're still the mayor, and you're still looking out for your neighbors. Your cottage feels too large with you in it alone, but you have your family and friends. Soon, your daughter will come home.


End file.
